Pupils’ sculpture highlights plastics plight

Children have used art and recycling to help highlight the plight of plastics in the world’s oceans.

Pupils at Glebe Primary School in Southwick created a beautiful flower sculpture, made entirely from plastic bottles.

The flower sculpture, inspired by sea anemones

The inspiration for the sculpture came from sea anemones and the way they look similar to flowers.

The children collected more than 200 plastic bottles from home to use for the sculpture.

Jo Norman, education and communication officer at Viridor, and teachers then helped the children turn them into flowers before building the final piece.

Jo Cooper, art teacher at Glebe Primary, said: “These children are the next generation, it is so important for them to learn now how to look after our world.”

The finished sculpture is now on display at the Ford Materials Recycling Facility, which is operated by Viridor on behalf of West Sussex County Council.

Sam Sygrave, a pupil at Glebe Primary, said: “I love the way the colours merge together and enjoyed changing the bottles into something beautiful.”

One of the most technologically advanced MRFs in the country, the automated system at Ford sorts and separates everything collected from home recycling bins and creates valuable materials which are baled, ready for manufacturing into new goods and products.